Michael Baizerman Author

  I am still reviewing my notes about merchant galleys. I began to understand how things worked in  medieval society and what happened in the Renaissance when a marvelous system of merchant convoys faded. Apart from freight galleys, I check my observations about war fleets, pick up examples to be studied in detail and develop new ways of presenting the facts for further comparison.  I found a serious shortfall in my work: my unfamiliarity with genuine maritime travel accounts about seafaring across the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. I began to trace these materials and their English translations. Meanwhile, I have found Pietro Casola's Traveling to Jerusalem and am going to make good use of it. As far as I understand, Pietro sailed on a pilgrim galley in 1494.  The academia.edu site offered me to be their reviewer. That means that I have to recommend scientific articles and books to be presented on the site. Each researcher receives a list ...

 As I have promised, I returned to my publishing activity in September. This time, I uploaded a new version of my article and offered it to Discussion on the Academia.  It is the first part of my longer paper, The Rediscovered Islands. The subtitle makes clear that the author covers the history of the Canary Islands in the 14th century.  The Little Age of Discovery (14th century) starts with the controversial uncovering of the Canary Islands. Without delay, the curia laid claims to dominion over the new enclave. However, the kings of Portugal and Castile had second thoughts about the sovereignty. The author refers to the portolan charts and travelogues of the trecento to prove the cautious expansion and dissemination of the geographic lore. Yes, the Canaries presented the first stepping stone ushering the Little Age of Discovery. I call the discovery controversial since it is still unclear who discovered each of the seven populated islands. I guess, in 1341 the Portuguese...